19

JEREMY

It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest all over again. How could Lucia do this to me again?

Yesterday felt like the most magical moment of my life, and after the magnitude of what we had shared, I thought everything had become right between us. I thought we were back together again.

But it looked like I thought wrong because once again, Lucia managed to rip my heart out and stomp all over it.

I had a little taste of her again, and she was gone, just like that. This time, it hurt much more than the last time.

Lucia was a cruel woman. She was so beautiful. Yet so cruel, and even though she stomped on my heart like that, I couldn’t bring myself to resent her no matter how hard I tried.

That was how much I liked her. I was losing my mind over the way she treated me now. She was so determined to ice me out now.

She wouldn’t speak to me no matter how much I tried to seek her out, and it was driving me completely mad.

I tried everything I could to reach her, but she wouldn’t budge. It looked like my deepest fear had become a reality. She was done with me for real this time.

Unfortunately, like I wasn’t going through enough, Amber decided to add to my problems. She wouldn’t stop following me around, and I was getting sick of it.

I would admit that I was not proud of what I started with her.

Even though I wasn’t interested in her, I pretended like I was just to make Lucia jealous and it seemed to have worked, but for only a few hours, but now everything backfired and Lucia wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with me.

And I wanted nothing to do with Amber either, but she either didn’t get the memo or kept ignoring it as she remained clingy as ever.

No matter what I did or how much I yelled at her, she just wouldn’t leave me alone.

The lectures were over for the day, and after another failed effort to talk to Lucia, I was left absolutely crushed and dejected.

Without even waiting for my friends, I grabbed my bag, got into my car, and drove straight home.

Once I arrived at the mansion, I pressed the doorbell with a vengeance. The door soon opened to reveal my butler standing in the doorway.

His eyebrows furrowed with concern when he noticed the scowl on my face.

“Welcome back, Mr. Hale. Is everything alright?” He asked as he ushered me into the house.

“Everything’s fine.” I answered as I stormed towards my room. I didn’t want to speak to anyone. I just wanted to be alone.

“Your brother is around, Mr. Hale. Just wanted to warn you.”

A loud grunt escaped my lips as I rolled my eyes. I was honestly too upset to deal with Aaron’s shenanigans at that moment.

I let out a sigh, running my fingers through my hair. “Yeah. Whatever. And dad?”

“Still at work.” Thomas answered, and I nodded, entering into my room and shutting the door loudly behind me.

I let out a sigh, dropping my bag on the ground as I pulled off my shoes before I collapsed on the bed, utterly exhausted.

I knew I should get some rest, or better still, take a nap, but I couldn’t bring myself to as thoughts of Lucia kept racing through my mind.

I didn’t know how she could be so cruel. I had no idea how she could treat me like this when it was clear that she liked me.

I let out another sigh, running my fingers through my hair as my body turned restless. The urge to see Lucia grew stronger by the minute.

It was clear that I was shit without her. I needed to touch her. To feel her. If my urges weren’t satiated, I could lose my damn mind.

I let out another sigh, tossing and turning uncomfortably on my bed. What the hell was I supposed to do now? How in the world was I supposed to move on from this? From her?

I sat up on my bed before making my way over to my guitar case, which sat at the corner of my room. Playing my guitar was the only thing that was guaranteed to make me feel better.

Playing the guitar always made me feel relaxed whenever I was upset.

I picked up my shiny and expensive-looking guitar and sat on the bed before I closed my eyes and began strumming some soft and slow notes.

Soon, thoughts of Lucia began flooding my head to the point where I couldn’t focus on the music anymore, and I completely missed the melody.

I let out a low, frustrated growl as my eyes shot open. I dumped my guitar on the bed before lying back down, a huge sigh escaping my lips.

This was more serious than I thought. Not even music was helping. I placed my hand over my face, just lying there for a while when I heard a soft knock on my door.

“Come in.” I said, sitting up on my bed and hoping that it was not my brother.

I shrugged. No way in hell was it Aaron anyway. He would never knock so softly.

The door opened, and I saw Thomas stick his head in the room.

“Mr. Hale. Your friends are here to see you.”

“Let them in.” I responded with a grunt, lying back on the bed. Hanging out with my friends was probably what I needed right now. I hoped it would be enough to distract me from thinking so much about Lucia.

“But Mr. Hale. Your brother.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “What’s he gonna do? Kick them out?”

Thomas nodded. “You have a point. I’ll show them in.”

“Thanks, Thomas.” I responded, and he nodded before disappearing out of sight, shutting the door behind him.

I waited in the room, and soon, I started hearing some shuttling of feet before my door shut wide open.

“Hey, man.” I heard Jack say, just as more feet shuffled into the room, and the door slammed shut. I sat up with a loud sigh and turned to face my friends.

All four of them were here, and from the looks of it, they had not gone home yet. They came here straight from school.

That gesture was enough to warm my heart, but I was honestly still upset.

“What’s going on with you, Jeremy?” Dean sat next to me with a look of concern on his face. “I was calling you at school, but you just rushed off like a damn maniac. Is everything wrong with you?”

“It’s not just today,” Ryan added, climbing into my bed, and I was honestly exhausted to tell him to take his shoes off my bed. “You’ve been off for a while now.”

“Is there something you’re not telling us? You know you can tell us everything. You don’t have to hide anything from us.” Tyler chipped in, his eyebrows furrowed with extreme concern.

“Do you have girl problems—”

“Is this because of Amber—”

“Is she stressing you out—”

“Oh, man. I knew I should have stopped you from dating her when I had the chance—”

The four of them began speaking all at the same time, making Jeremy let out a loud sigh. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“Enough guys. I never dated Amber, alright?”

I watched as four pairs of eyes grew wide as saucers before Ryan spoke first.

“What? I don’t believe it. I saw you two kissing and holding hands and stuff.”

“Yes. I saw it, too. You two were being all lovey dovey and shit.” Dean chipped in.

“It made me sick a little bit, but I figured that since you were happy, then I should be supportive.” Jack added, his expression extremely confused.

“There is no way you two are not dating. You are clearly in love with her.” Tyler said, thoughtfully pinching his chin, and I nearly threw up in my mouth as my face scrunched up with disgust.

“I’m not in love with her, and I would never date someone like that.” I replied harshly, feeling heated by the conversation we were currently having.

“Then why did you two act like you were.” Dean asked, his expression filled with both confusion and curiosity.

I let out a loud sigh, running my fingers through my hair. This was the most difficult part, telling my friends about Lucia.

The relationship between Lucia and I was supposed to be a secret, but the four in front of me were my closest friends, and I never hid anything from them.

It was safe to say that at that moment, I was deeply conflicted.

“Uhm–” I began, but I had no clue if it was right to tell them or not.

“Come on, Jeremy. What are you waiting for? Tell us.” Jack insisted.